IAACE Blog: News for You

I often make the mistake of reading the “reader comment” sections of the newspapers when I read articles about adult education or literacy. More often than not, one of the first comments is along the lines of, “why should we waste our time with these people? They’ve had their chance, and they blew it!” Or, “They had their chance, they should PAY for it!” (here’s a recent example: Houston Chronicle). Knowing that it takes the involvement of an entire community to improve the literacy levels of its population, I get so frustrated after reading these types of comments and often feel like we are fighting a battle that we can not win.

But, in the last couple of weeks, I’ve been involved with a couple of meetings in the Indianapolis community that gives me much more hope. The first was a meeting that Indy Reads hosted to work on a way to use adult education to prevent crime; the second was a Community Council meeting at my son’s elementary school.

In September, we (Indy Reads) hosted a meeting on crime prevention, and invited a number of local agencies to get their input. The meeting included representatives from community centers, housing agencies, the prosecutor’s office, the police department, adult education, and other social service agencies. It was inspiring meeting because it became obvious that this was a group who saw and knew the need for the education of adults, and they were not there to ridicule those who need our services. The group talked about the need for working together, working as a community, to fill the needs that adult students (and their families) need to succeed.

The second meeting happened this week at Harrison Hill Elementary here in Indianapolis. I was invited to be a part of their Community Council. The first meeting was this week, and about 18 different people, from 13 or 14 different organizations were in attendance. Again, the discussion centered around offering services for the student and for the entire family, dealing with the issues that often keep kids from succeeding in school (and later becoming adult education students), issues like tardiness, safety, literacy, and so on.

A few years ago, Indy Reads started a campaign to “make Indianapolis 100% literate through 100% community participation.” There are times, as when I read the reader’s comments, that it sometimes feels like an impossible task. But, then I have some meetings like those in the last couple of weeks, and suddenly, I feel much, much better about things. I know that these meetings were not anything groundbreaking, but they were great reminders of what we should all be doing in adult education. Improving the education levels of adults in Indiana is going to take a widespread, community-wide effort. We should always be looking at adding new partner organizations into our consortiums, our programs, and all of our spheres of influence.